Category: Donor Generosity

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Donor Generosity Foster Care Residential Treatment

Sunrise Children’s Services and Paul Mitchell The School find a “Way” to help serve Kentucky’s foster children

It all began with a conversation between Reuben Watson, regional advancement director at Sunrise Children’s Services, and Jeremy Teall, director and owner of Paul Mitchell The School in Lexington and Louisville. The two started talking a year ago about what it would be like for their organizations to form a partnership and together help serve the children of Sunrise by providing free haircuts and styles. By the time their conversation ended, Teall and Watson decided that they should help not just Sunrise kids, but any child from any foster care organization in the state of Kentucky. And that is how the WayMaker Project was formed.

A year later, more than 200 kids have been served in the Lexington and Louisville communities through the partnership of Sunrise Children’s Services and Paul Mitchell the School. Organizations which include Kentucky United Methodist, All God’s Children, Home of the Innocents, Boys and Girls Haven, St. Josephs Children’s Home, Strengthening Transformations, LEX Project Prom, and others have all benefited from this program.

“The WayMaker Project has given our kiddos at St. Joseph Children’s Home the opportunity to be pampered while improving their self-worth,” stated Mary Horton, residential supervisor at St. Joseph’s Children’s Home in Louisville. “The stylists are so personable and patient with our kiddos as well!”

“This is how it works: An agency will request tickets and a Sunrise care worker will deliver the tickets to the requesting agency,” explained Watson. “We are all in this together.”

Earlier this year, a foster parent from All God’s Children (AGC) was extremely grateful to hear about the WayMaker Project. “Having one child to get school-ready as a single mom is a challenge.  Imagine having four!” she said.  “A week before school started, a sibling set of three joined my family.  When I received an email from AGC that we could get hair cut vouchers, I responded immediately.  Making the appointment through Paul Mitchell’s website was super easy.  The ladies who cut my boys’ hair took their time and made sure the boys walked away with smiles on their faces.  Thank you AGC for taking care of my kiddos!”

Strengthening Transformations, Inc. has partnered with Paul Mitchell over the past five years with events such as the Father/Daughter dance held at the Woodford County Detention Center where they provided hair, makeup, and manicures for the daughters; and the Friendship Fest in 2019. “We were so ecstatic that stylists from the Paul Mitchell School gave of their time to do free quick styles for the girls in attendance at Friendship Fest and last year provided us with vouchers for free haircuts,” said a representative from Strengthening Transformations. “Through their partnership with our organization, we have been able to make young girls recognize their beauty both inside and out.”

The Paul Mitchell organization believes a haircut can be the catalyst for children to understand how special they truly are. “It has been an honor and pleasure for Paul Mitchell The School to partner with Sunrise Children’s Services.  Fundraising and supporting the local community has been the foundation and cornerstone of Paul Mitchell Schools since their inception,” said Teall.  “Partnering with Sunrise Children’s Services has given Paul Mitchell The School the opportunity to reach the most needed, and in many cases most well-deserving people, in our community.  It always has been and will continue to be the mission of Paul Mitchell The School to serve our local community, and the creation of the WayMaker Project will continue to help us achieve that mission.  Thank you to the many people at Sunrise who have aided us in our mission to serve.”

LEX Project Prom is another agency who has benefitted from Paul Mitchell The School and the WayMaker Project. “LEX Project Prom is a non-profit organization that serves under-resourced students to attend their senior prom with no financial obligation. With partners like Paul Mitchell, our students are able to complete their full Prom look,” stated Asona McMullen, executive director at LEX Project Prom. The staff (at paul Mitchell The School) is always welcoming and attentive to our students’ needs. Without them, we would not be able to provide a full service for our attending students. They have been a joy to work with, and we are honored to have them support our mission and work alongside us.”

And of course, the kids at Sunrise Children’s Services have also benefitted from the WayMaker Project. Last month, 15 girls who live at Sunrise’s Glen Dale Center in Elizabethtown were given free haircuts and styles by Paul Mitchell the Louisville School. The night did not end there. Paul Mitchell The School purchased pizza and had a pizza party for the Sunrise kids while investing in the young ladies’ lives. “The Sunrise girls felt so good about their new looks and themselves. They couldn’t stop smiling, which is sadly rare for some of these girls,” said Jake Pelfrey, development director at Sunrise.   “Paul Mitchell The School is the type of entity that understands that it takes a village to care for these kids.”

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Donor Generosity Our Agency Residential Treatment

Donor’s ministry to Sunrise began with a two-dollar bill!

Wanda Sullivan, former Administrative Assistant at the New Hope Pregnancy Center, had heard of Sunrise Children’s Services but hadn’t yet made any real connection with its ministry. That changed in 2018 when she retired from her job. “The Lord just kind of put a burden on my heart for Sunrise,” Sullivan said. “So, I told my pastor, Brother Robbie Fairley at Pleasant Grove Baptist Church in Shepherdsville, that I would be reaching out to Sunrise.”

Sullivan did just that. And then she waited. And prayed. Her specific prayer was: “Lord, I’m putting out the fleece. If our church or myself were supposed to connect to Sunrise, just have the person that I talk to contact Brother Robbie and say this is the place.” God answered. But not exactly in the way she asked.

Shortly after her talk with her pastor, and while she was eating out with some of her friends, Brother Robbie Fairley called her. And missed her. Sullivan called back. But he missed her call. Finally, they connected. “You know that fleece you put out about Sunrise?” Fairley told her over the phone. “Well, the person that you wanted to contact me didn’t, but Stewart stopped by here and wanted to know what you all are going to do.” (Stewart Haag is the activities and volunteer coordinator at Sunrise’s Spring Meadows Center in Mt. Washington). “I think you got your answer,” Fairley concluded.
That began four years ago. From the very start, Sullivan wanted to find a mission at Spring Meadows that no one else was fulfilling. Stewart Haag suggested coming once a month to celebrate birthdays because a lot of the boys had never had a birthday party. Sullivan loved the idea. “The first Sunday of every month, regardless if there’s a birthday or not, we come over and have cake,” Sullivan shared. “It’s a birthday cake if there are birthdays; if not, we just do some kind of cake.” Since then, Sullivan and her church have added Christmas. But for Sullivan, the birthday celebrations will always be her called mission. “Our birthdays are our thing,” she explained.

Along with a cake, Sullivan and a small group of three other church members lead a one-hour party with all the boys and leave behind a gift for the birthday boy. Four years ago, the birthday gift was actually a two-dollar bill. “The two-dollar bill got started with our first group,” said Sullivan. “They enjoyed getting the two-dollar bills. They got it, and they were like, ‘I got a two-dollar bill!’” Today, Sullivan and her group give the birthday boys at Spring Meadows gift cards or other items, adapting to the new boys in the program and to their interests.

But what Sullivan hopes most to give to the boys is something long lasting and even life changing. “We share the gospel with them; that’s our main goal,” she said. One young man from Spring Meadows accepted Jesus as his savior and was baptized in Pleasant Grove Baptist Church the first year of the birthday parties. “I want (the boys) to take away that there are people in the world that care about them, and there is a church in Bullitt County that has been faithful to them,” Sullivan continued. “These boys have been let down by the very people that should love them the most. And they get forgotten . . . . Our main thing is that somebody out there cares about them.”

Sullivan understands that there are many misconceptions about the boys who live at Spring Meadows Center. “Yes, there are some here because of bad choices that they made, but there are groups here that have different needs; they are the victims,” she said. “So, it doesn’t matter why they’re here; this is our opportunity. You know, either be a part of the solution, or you’re a part of the problem.”

It is clear that Sullivan is passionate about her ministry to the Spring Meadows boys. “Those boys have stolen my heart.” she stated. “It just makes my heart happy to be around them. They lift me up. I enjoy they’re company; I enjoy they’re honesty. And, I don’t know, I just love being around them.”

One of the many boys at Spring Meadows who captured Sullivan’s heart is Josh.* “He wanted to be a chef – a chef!” Wanda exclaimed. “And this kid, every month we would go, it would be like, ‘Miss Wanda, I have a new recipe for you.’ We were talking about hot chocolate. ‘Put some peppermint in that hot chocolate.’ And every time I do that now, I think about (Josh).”
For Sullivan, these monthly birthday parties are truly a mission given to her by God alone. “My prayer is that whatever God wants to do with Pleasant Grove in this ministry – if it’s to do the birthday party once a month until He calls us home, or in another way – then I want Him to lead this ministry,” she explained. “I thank Him for giving it to me, but I don’t own it.”

And all of us at Sunrise thank you, Wanda Sullivan, along with your church group and everyone at Pleasant Grove Baptist Church in Shepherdsville for consistently and genuinely caring for the boys who live at Sunrise’s Spring Meadows Center in Mt. Washington. You are helping our kids know they are valued, much more than a two-dollar bill.